


When Reyes met Ryder

by leeryderlavellan



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Clubbing, Drinking, F/M, Flirting, club scene, sara is a natural biotic because of ellen's research, this presents some problems
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-11-02
Packaged: 2019-01-28 09:11:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12603200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leeryderlavellan/pseuds/leeryderlavellan
Summary: Sara Ryder uses the Citadel's night life as an escape from her confining home life. Reyes Vidal moves to the Citadel and meets Sara, is immediately smitten. Teenagers be teenagers.





	When Reyes met Ryder

**Author's Note:**

> For now, this is a oneshot, but it may evolve into something more, should inspiration strike.
> 
> Trigger warnings for: alcohol, mild violence, sexist slurs, some blood

The black lights made it impossible to ignore Sara Ryder, her white tank top and blonde hair shining like a beacon for Reyes Vidal, who followed at a short distance as she weaved her way through the rooms of the club.

A club really wasn’t his ideal location for his first night on the Citadel, but after this girl had winked at him when she caught him staring, Reyes wasn’t about to leave alone. He’d had a hard-enough time talking his way past the bouncer in the first place, and he intended to ask her how she’d gotten into the club as well – she looked at least his age or younger, while he looked older than his true age: a mere fifteen years. Looks could be deceiving, he knew, but how anyone could have stared down at this girl and thought she was of the legal drinking age baffled him. Maybe she’d bribed the bouncer. Or maybe she knew him. Reyes was new to the Citadel, after all, and this girl was working her way through the club with no hesitation – she knew where she was going. She was also aware that he was following her – without looking back, she had lifted her hand and gestured forward. At first, he thought she’d seen someone she knew, but then she had looked back – and winked again.

He was really in trouble, now.

-

Sara had come to the club rather spur of the moment, all things considered. Yes, she frequented this particular club on the weekends, but it was a Tuesday. Not that, she supposed, that really meant anything in the grand scheme of things. Nights were nights, and there was a feeling of having time off, even if the night was manufactured. Not that, she supposed again, this was really “time off” for her. Sara didn’t have a real job outside of school - just some mindless part-time work at a clinic that her dad had set up, since he was friends with one of the doctors there - and as she was one of the top students in her class, she didn’t consider school a job, either. No, if this was time off, it was time away from her family. She knew Scott wouldn’t have come with her if she’d asked, out of fear of whatever reprisal their father would have for them the next morning – Scott had witnessed these lectures first-hand, and probably didn’t want to be on the receiving end. She also knew she could have stayed home and asked Scott to hang out and play some sort of mindless game as an escape, but he always wanted her to talk about her feelings, and she always wanted to keep them pushed down.

Their mother wasn’t any better than Scott, in that regard, and their father…

Well, he was the reason she’d snuck out.

This new boy, though…there was something about him. Maybe it was just that he was new, and the familiar was something Sara was trying to avoid. There was a certain heat to his gaze, to be sure, but it wasn’t like she’d never experienced someone looking at her with lust before. No, it wasn’t just heat, it was…warmth. He seemed curious, or else he wouldn’t still be following her after she’d run him in several loops around the club. And when she’d looked back at him, that same warmth was in his eyes, remarkably easy to pick out despite the dim lighting.

Time to stop running, then.

-

Finally, the girl stopped and turned towards the bar. Reyes was struck by her profile as he approached the stool next to hers. Her nose was straight but it wasn’t a harsh line; something about her complexion made everything about her seem soft. Maybe it was the lighting of the bar, which stood out in contrast to the rest of the room, purple LEDs shining down on the patrons. They made the girl glow.

Or maybe she looked like that all the time.

Reyes found himself desperately curious to find out.

“Are you gonna buy me a drink or were you following me for some nefarious scheme?”

Her voice startled him, and he floundered for a moment before he could respond. There was a surprising clarity to it; he could hear every inflection it took, even above the booming music coming from the loudspeakers in each corner of the room.

She was smirking, but it faded a bit as she spoke again, before he could say anything.

“That was…a joke. I’ll buy you a drink, since you’re new here.”

Reyes sat down as the girl motioned to the bartender, trying to find his own voice.

“I’m-”

The girl held up her right hand to cut him off, then used the same hand to interface with the omni-tool on her left forearm, paying for the drinks before sliding one his way.

It was a shot of some kind of dark liquor.

“Drink that first. It’ll help,” the girl said, smirking again as she watched him pick up the glass and down the shot. By the time he put his glass down, hers was sitting empty on the bar.

“Sara Ry-…len,” the girl said, holding out her right hand towards him while she leaned on the bar with her left arm.

“Reyes Vidal,” Reyes managed to speak without his voice wavering and thanked the gods of whisky, while Sara’s grin became toothy.

“Lovely to meet you. So…are you just new to the club, or are you new to the Citadel?” Sara asked, her head resting on her fist as she stared Reyes down.

“The…Citadel. I arrived today, in fact.” Reyes replied, finding it a little difficult to hold Sara’s gaze, and jumped a little when she clapped her hands together.

“I knew it! I mean, I run this club on the regs, so I knew you were new here, but I think I would’ve remembered seeing you around the Citadel.” Sara said, her eyes narrowing but one corner of her mouth still upturned.

Reyes was almost certain that was a pick-up line, of some kind, but didn’t feel like pushing his luck just yet.

“Do you know everyone on the Citadel?” he asked, finding it was his turn to smirk.

“Well, no, but we’re around the same age, yeah? And we clearly have similar interests.”

Sara gestured vaguely to their surroundings. “So we would’ve met before now if you’d been here long.”

“Similar interests, is it?” Reyes asked, enjoying the way Sara’s nose scrunched up in response to his challenge.

“Of all the clubs on the Citadel, you picked this one. And it’s your first night here. So you either asked a friend for a recommendation and liked what they told you about this place, or you came here on a whim. Either way, you now have something in common with me, unless you find a sudden distaste for where you currently sit,” Sara explained, then motioned to the bartender for another round of drinks. She paid for them before he could protest, then slid one his way. Sara tossed hers back like a hardened pro, then sucked her lips in, giggling a little when she found Reyes staring. She gestured for him to take his, so he did.

And promptly choked on it. He managed to swallow the drink without sputtering, but as he set his glass down and wiped his mouth free of any excess alcohol, Sara was laughing her ass off.

“Too sweet?” she asked, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes.

“No distaste to be found,” Reyes replied sarcastically, trying to glare at her but finding that he couldn’t keep a straight face while she laughed.

“Oh boy, that was good. I’m sorry, I should have warned you. Coconut rum is one of my favorites. Not a lot of people would pick it after whisky. Or before,” Sara said, fighting back a grin.

“It’s not that the drink was bad, I just wasn’t prepared,” Reyes said, beginning to smile as well. The effects of two shots, rum or whisky, wouldn’t be substantial, normally, but with this confident girl smiling at him nonstop, Reyes found himself growing warmer. Itchy to leave the spotlight, he remembered something he’d wanted to ask Sara. Waiting until the bartender was out of earshot, he said, “You say we’re about the same age, but you don’t know how old I am. I can’t make an educated guess based on your assumption of my age, but I doubt you’re of the legal drinking age.”

“Very astute,” Sara replied, with only a hint of sarcasm. “I’m sixteen. But the bouncer is a friend of my mom’s, and he used to have a huge crush on her, so once I told him that I was at the club to rebel against my dad, he let me right in.”

“Really?” Reyes asked, eyebrows raised. He was more shocked that Sara was a year older than he was than at how she’d gotten into the club, but before he could absorb that information, she replied to his question.

“No, not really. I snuck in the window of the girl’s room.” Sara said, laughing, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Reyes shook his head, a grin forming on his face.

And then that grin faded, as someone far larger than himself and, he supposed, more conventionally attractive, walked up and began speaking to Sara.

“Hey babe, been a while since you were here.”

As soon as they opened their mouth, Sara’s face grew tired – her smile disappeared completely, and her eyes narrowed.

“Hey, Toby. Notice how I used your name? I’m not your babe,” she said, her tone flat and a tad biting.

“Whoa, hey now, I’m just keeping it friendly. Besides, that’s not what you said the last time I saw you. Or the time before that…or the time before-”

Sara cut the meathead off with her left hand, holding it up stiffly. “That doesn’t mean I want you to call me that on a regular basis. Especially not when I’m talking to someone new.”

“What, this punk?” Toby gestured at Reyes, who bristled.

“You don’t know him, Toby. And you don’t know me. Not really.”

“I know you in the biblical sense,” Toby remarked, stepping closer to Sara until he was practically breathing down her neck.

Sara was undeterred, and stared up at him from her seat on the bar stool, her face incredulous. “I’m sorry, are you a Christian now?”

“It’s just a phrase and you know it, bitch.” Toby sneered, and Sara let out a half-scoff, half-laugh.

“Yeah that’s going to make me want to sleep with you again, you absolute troglodyte.”

“Trogla…what?”

“Please don’t be obtuse.”

Toby looked as though he’d been caught sleeping during a lecture. “What…does that mean?”

Sara closed her eyes, her head tilted, then drew her eyebrows together as though she were in pain. Turning back to Reyes, she asked, “You know what those words mean, right?”

Reyes, who had been watching the exchange in mild discomfort, stuttered a moment before responding. “Troglodyte? Cavemen. And obtuse…in this case...” he hesitated, glancing at Toby and wondering how badly he would be beaten for calling this hulking man a moron.

Thankfully, Sara leaned towards him and whispered, “I take it that means you know.” She patted his leg reassuringly, then stood up from her stool, placing herself between Reyes and Toby.

The size difference was slightly baffling, Reyes thought, as he watched Sara attempt to shoo the larger man away.

It didn’t work, and soon Reyes found himself hauled to his feet as Toby grabbed the collar of his shirt and yanked him up.

“Let go of him, you dick!” Sara commanded, beating on the arm Toby was using to hold Reyes.

“I’ll let him go once you admit that you’re only turning me down because he’s here,” Toby said, maintaining eye contact with Reyes, whose expression had turned from shock to quiet anger, his eyes glaring a hole through Toby.

“You egotistical fuck, I just met him. I’m not sleeping with you, ever again, because I just realized how fucking stupid you are.” Sara’s voice sounded and felt like fire, and Reyes turned his head to stare at her, impressed with her unwavering courage. He didn’t notice when Toby’s hand let go of his shirt, or he would have tried to stop him from what he did next. Toby lashed out suddenly, striking Sara across the face with the back of his hand with such force she fell to the club floor.

“Hey!” Reyes shouted, getting Toby’s attention just before punching him in the gut.

It didn’t do much, and when Toby retaliated with a punch to his face, Reyes also found himself on the floor, his nose bleeding and possibly broken.

“She shouldn’t have called me stupid.” Toby said, almost sounding remorseful, then turned to Sara, leaning down and grabbing her arm. “You shouldn’t have-”

And then she turned blue, and Toby flew across the room.

Sara stood, her body glowing with biotic energy, huffing as she wiped blood from her mouth with the back of her hand. Then she turned to Reyes, who was staring up at her in awe.

“You okay?” she asked, reaching her hand out to him as she stopped glowing.

All he could do was nod as he took her hand, pushing himself from the floor with his free hand and staggering a bit as he tried to regain his footing. Sara was smiling as she pulled on his hand, causing him to bump into her, and she grabbed his other arm before he could back away.

“You sure?” she grinned, letting go of his hand to reach up and gingerly touch his nose.  
Reyes hissed in pain, but before he could comment on - or touch - Sara’s own bleeding nose, he noticed a certain meathead stalking up behind her. Sara noticed his worried look and turned to see what he was staring at, then grabbed his hand again and promptly began running in the opposite direction.

-

They didn’t stop running until they’d traversed several back alleys and side streets, even running through the middle of a bustling market at one point. When they did stop to take a breather, it was in one particularly dark alley, Reyes leaning against one wall and Sara against the opposite.

“I think…we probably…lost him,” Reyes said, panting in between words, then letting out a huff of breathy laughter.

“Yeah, I think we’re good,” Sara remarked in a rush, pushing off the wall she was leaning on to walk towards Reyes. Before he could say anything, she was touching his face again, ghosting her fingers over his sore nose before laying her hands more firmly on his cheeks.

He knew she was going to kiss him, but it was still a surprise when her lips touched his. 

As if sensing this hesitation, Sara kept still for a moment, breathing slowly as if to remind Reyes how to do the same. He waited just a few seconds longer, looking at Sara’s closed eyes before closing his own and reaching a hand up to place it behind her neck, pulling her closer and pushing their lips together more fully. Sara made a noise at the back of her throat, but Reyes couldn’t tell if it was good or bad, so he pulled back.

“Are you all right?” he asked, moving his hand from her neck to her cheek, and she leaned into his touch with her eyes still closed.

“Yeah, it’s just…he popped me pretty good,” Sara replied, stretching her mouth a little before opening her eyes to look at Reyes with a smile. “Sorry. He got you worse. Do you want to go…get that checked out? I know a good doctor.”

Reyes shook his head, removing his hand from Sara’s cheek so he could examine his nose himself, while he looked at the ground. It hurt like hell, but it wasn’t broken, so there was that minor miracle. He really didn’t need to find himself in some sort of official Citadel system because of a broken nose. But he did want to spend more time with Sara. 

“I’m sorry. My taste in men is, apparently, abhorrent. I’m…working on it,” she said, cutting through his thoughts. Reyes looked back up at her and she winked, cementing his attraction to her and his desire to spend as much of the night with her as possible.

“I’m fine, really. But…an ice pack couldn’t hurt?”

“It could, theoretically. If thrown hard enough,” Sara remarked, before realizing Reyes wasn’t truly asking the question she’d heard, but was asking to go home with her.

Or to the nearest convenience store.

“Oh. Duh. Come on,” Sara said, grabbing Reyes’ hand again and leading him out of the alley.

And so Reyes found himself following this girl for the third time that night, and at that moment he knew he would probably follow her to the edge of known space if it meant seeing her smile.


End file.
